Through 6 weeks of the 2008-9 broadcast prime-time season, among big English networks, CBS is in the best shape vs. last season, down “only” 6.7% in the key adults 18-49 demo. There is plenty of pain to be spread around with double digit percentage losses in most demo categories for most networks. My guess is that CBS, CW and ABC will begin to see some improvement vs. last season in early 2009 when prior year comparisons to the strike damaged portion of the season get a lot easier. NBC may be another matter, their results last season actually improved on a relative basis during the strike, but they have the Super Bowl this year, which will also lead to a huge spike in their average making comparisons tricky.
The 18-34 demo adults performance of the CW is a notable exception to the overall trend this season. Our Nielsen reported numbers show it down just 1.2% vs. last season, a huge success on a relative basis. CW’s Nielsen numbers (which we see via press release only) show them up with 18-34 women on the season.
As we’ve covered before, Univision is up across the board vs. last season. New to the chart this week are the numbers for MyNetworkTV (MNT). They’re up drastically over last season, thanks mainly to the addition of Friday Night Smackdown!. I included their numbers, but their bars are truncated. The scale for the other networks would be useless otherwise.
Our chart shows broadcast network prime-time season to date average prime-time viewership for the 2008-9 season compared to the 2007-8 season. Click the image for a full sized chart.
Nielsen TV Ratings Data: ©2008 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
Wonder if the CW regrets their decision to drop Smackdown.
Kathy, if they do it will never be admitted publicly. I appreciate that their current strategy is all built around attracting young women to the network, but am interested to know at what level of young female viewership they can equal their revenue levels of recent seasons when they had substantially more 18-49 adult viewers. If that’s already happening, good for them.
No, it’s not all about ratings.. they’re getting more money with the comedies and the repeats of Top Model.
Bill I know this is about the networks but i was wondering if you ever come across any data for It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Adam, not directly from Nielsen, we only see the top 40 cable shows each week, but we could possibly see something via FX press release or other media outlet.
Cool, you have no idea what your talking about. The CW’s strategy of targeting only young women and giving up other audiences could potentially pay off in the future, but short term Friday (those comedies and the Top Model repeat) is a disaster.
Thanks Bill. I was just wondering what it’s numbers look like since FX gave them a 39 episode commitment over 3 years (The way I read it, it was 39 episodes on top of the 13 this year). I’d imagine FX would add the 10 ET showing with the 11 ET showing for the numbers?
It’s without a doubt the funniest show on TV right now, I’ve just been trying to figure out how many people watch the new episodes. If I had to guess I’d say 1.6 million.
Well , I am not surprised . I used to watch A LOT of TV years ago . I loved Buffy , friends , The X Files, Will & Grace…I am 35 now , and each day I watch less and less TV . Mostly I watch DVDs or movies . Why??. Well I feel each year more and more networks care less about viewers . How many shows they start and then get canceled?? They don’t give shows a lot of chances and they leave people crashed . If a show does not get the perfect rating and the perfect demo , forget it .This is one of the reasons I don’t watch TV. It’s kind of stressful to be enjoying a show and being worried at the same time when they are going to cancel it. At least with DVDs and movies you know what you’re dealing with.
Paula, TV viewing isn’t down; more people spend more time watching TV now than ever before. Broadcast TV viewing is down. Part of that is audience fragmentation (with so many choices, fewer will choose any particular channel). Part of it, especially for highly serialized shows, is due to the strike. People found they could live without the show or didn’t bother to come back after 8 months. Part of it (a small part) is due to DVR viewing.
also, with box sets and stuff, people don’t need to follow tv shows anymore =/
Yeah for tv shows that release DVDs